


jump in the pool

by emmerrr



Series: Only Fools Rush In [20]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-11 06:48:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20149417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmerrr/pseuds/emmerrr
Summary: sentence prompt fill: “In my defense, it seemed like a brilliant idea at the time.”





	jump in the pool

It was no secret that Ronan didn’t do particularly well in the heat.

Adam was fine in any temperature, too used to being uncomfortable whilst working in the summer to really notice it anymore. But there was usually a point every summer when Ronan had had enough of the heat, and would cease to function.

Currently, he was lying flat on the tiles in the kitchen wearing nothing but his boxers, four different fans pointing at him. Every so often he’d let out a little groan, which Adam had been valiantly ignoring all morning from where he was stationed at the kitchen table, getting a head-start on some summer reading for college.

However, even he had his limits.

After Ronan made yet another mournful sound, Adam slammed his book shut.

“Do you not think you’re being just a _little _bit dramatic?”

Ronan shifted his gaze so that he could see Adam, because clearly moving his whole head was too much effort.

“I think I’m being the exact right amount of dramatic, so if you don’t mind–” he groaned again, pointedly.

Adam shook his head and got up. He retrieved a bag of frozen peas from the freezer and dropped them unceremoniously onto Ronan’s stomach.

Ronan yelped and sat up, tossing them aside, then he glared at Adam, who valiantly refrained from smiling.

“Very funny, Parrish.”

“What? I was being helpful.”

“I’ll keep that in mind next time _you’re _dying from extreme heat exhaustion.”

“I’m glad to see you’re not blowing this out of proportion,” Adam said, picking up the peas to return them to the freezer.

“I’m not,” Ronan said, settling himself back down. “Global warming will kill us all.”

Adam paused. “I mean…probably.” He frowned; the conversation was taking a turn for the morbid and summer wasn’t the time for morbid. Summer was for fun and frolicking, and so far this morning Ronan seemed up for neither.

Adam knelt down beside him and pressed a kiss to Ronan’s sweaty forehead. “Are you really just going to lie here all day?”

“I am going to lie here until the sun dies,” Ronan confirmed.

“Okay,” Adam said. “Have fun with that.”

He headed outside in search of something to do.

It really was relentlessly hot, but there was still something nice about being outside, listening to the sounds of nature. They were far enough from the road that there was no lingering traffic noises, making the Barns truly feel like a world of its own.

Adam loved it here.

He walked the grounds and considered watering the plants, but he knew it really was better to leave that until the evening. Right now it would dry up too fast to do much good, even though they looked like they needed it.

He spotted Opal asleep in a hammock, nicely shaded from the sun by the trees it was hanging from. Chainsaw was nowhere to be seen, but Adam figured she’d be hiding out somewhere too, out of the sun’s rays. No doubt she’d turn up later looking for food.

Adam eventually found himself in one of the smaller barns. It was more of an oversized shed than anything, and it just housed a lot of _stuff. _Half-empty tins of paint, the lids crusty with how old they were, chicken-feed, plant-pots which were mostly broken, an ancient looking lawn-mower, and any number of other things that had fallen into disuse or disrepair.

In the corner, Adam spied an ancient beat-up skateboard, and next to it, a homemade wooden ramp, reminiscent of another one he had once seen Ronan make in the Monmouth parking lot.

Adam had an idea.

A couple of hours later, he traipsed back to the farmhouse, hot and sweaty but pleased with his morning’s graft. He tip-toed past a napping Ronan to get upstairs and quickly rinse off in the shower, then he dressed in swimming trunks.

Back downstairs, he woke Ronan by nudging his toe into his ribs.

Ronan lazily swatted him away. “Leave me alone unless you’ve come bearing ice-cream,” he mumbled.

“Get up. I have a surprise for you.”

Ronan opened one eye. “Is it ice-cream?”

“No, but I’ll get you some later if you come with me now.”

Ronan heaved himself to his feet. “Fiiiiiine,” he said, with the air of someone who was being forced to go to the dentist.

He followed Adam outside in a huffy silence, but when they approached the back fields, Adam felt Ronan’s hand creep into his. Both their hands were clammy, but neither of them minded.

Ronan appraised Adam. “Are you wearing swimming trunks?”

“Never you mind,” Adam said.

“Are we going to the spring? Because that’s not a surprise; I’ve been to the spring before. I basically _built _the spring.”

“It’s not the spring,” Adam said. “Well, it is and it isn’t.”

Ronan mulled that over. “Okaaaay. You’ve piqued my curiosity, Parrish.”

“Lucky me.”

The spring was conveniently located near the bottom of a slope, and when they finally reached their destination, Adam stopped, letting Ronan take it all in.

He didn’t want to be the person that studies someone else for the reaction they want, but he couldn’t help himself. He watched Ronan’s face transform from vague heat-related annoyance, to surprise, awe, and finally, delight.

“Adam,” he said, “you built me a slip ‘n slide.”

Adam grinned. “I built you a slip ‘n slide.”

It hadn’t been that hard really. There was an abundance of plastic sheeting in the shed which he’d taken out and hosed down, enlisting Opal to help him carry it over to the field. He’d folded it in half and used anchor pins to hold it in place. The end of it, he’d pinned to the ramp (which Opal had also helped him move) at the bottom of the slope. 

He’d used dish soap to lubricate the centre of the plastic sheeting and he had the dreamt hosepipe spraying water down the whole thing. If all went to plan, when they slid down the slope, they would pick up enough speed that they’d go shooting off the ramp and into the spring.

He _had_ been pretty confident the trajectory would work, but looking at it now, he wasn’t so sure.

“Parrish, this is _awesome,” _Ronan said. “Will that work, with the ramp?”

“I, uh, haven’t actually tried it yet.” He frowned. “I don’t know.”

Ronan laughed. “So it _could _send us flying to a painful landing, is that what you’re saying?”

“Technically?” Adam said, and Ronan laughed harder. “In my defence, it was a brilliant idea at the time.”

“It’s still a brilliant idea.” His smile turned sharp and mischievous. “We’ll throw Opal down there and see what happens.”

Adam was glad Opal had disappeared because no doubt she’d have been only too up for playing crash test dummy. 

“Maybe not,” Adam said.

“Course not, Parrish. I’ll test it myself,” Ronan said, and before Adam could stop him, Ronan hurtled himself headfirst down the slip ‘n slide.

Adam’s heart was in his throat as Ronan soared off the end of the ramp, but he landed exactly where Adam had intended him to; right in the middle of the spring.

He submerged, then resurfaced a moment later, spitting out water.

“It works!” he yelled.

“I can see that,” Adam shouted back. He waited for his heartbeat to calm down as Ronan did a lazy backstroke across the spring.

“Are you coming?”

“Give me a minute.” Adam paced back and forth before the slip ‘n slide, building his nerve. He peered down towards the spring to see Ronan grinning up at him, arms outstretched.

“C’mon, babe,” he called. “Slip ‘n slide into my arms.”

“You are _so _annoying,” Adam replied, and launched himself down.

Later, when they’d each had plenty of turns, and when they’d gone down together, toboggan style, they both lay on their backs floating in the spring. Their fingers were getting pruny but neither made a move to get out. They were quiet.

Adam had spent a lot of time trying to define love, or at least to define what it meant to him. Sometimes he could put it into words; sometimes not.

He smiled. Today, love was building a slip ‘n slide for his grumpy boyfriend just to make him smile.

Tomorrow, it would be something else.

“Hey, Adam?”

“Yeah?”

“…Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

**Author's Note:**

> title from jump in the pool by friendly fires which has the fun summer vibe i was going for :) 
> 
> also this is cross-posted from tumblr because i liked it but i also have a bunch of little fics over there that aren't on here, you can find me @emmerrr if you wanna track them down!


End file.
